Colorism in video games (Open spoilers)

[Dice]

The comments on this Atelier character really rubbed me the wrong way. There's a weird trope for going a "tanned skin" route than to commit a character simply being, in-fact, dark-skinned.

While I can appreciate the visual contrast, the tendency for dark characters to sport light hair colours is also reaaaallly prevalent (you can literally make a list of it).

Anyways, great topic. It's a topic that deserves eyes.

 

[Ego]

To this day, I'm still convinced that the only way Sheva exists at all, at least as a main RE5 playable character, is to offset the initial uproar when the game was revealed to be about a white man going to Africa to mow down black monsters.

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That's a irrational assumption in my book. It makes sense to choose a native person as playable character. RE6 did the same thing with east european characters. I liked sheeva very much and thought she was a very good and believable character (in RE terms).

 

[Mr_Zombie]

this day, I'm still convinced that the only way Sheva exists at all, at least as a main RE5 playable character, is to offset the initial uproar when the game was revealed to be about a white man going to Africa to mow down black monsters.

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In the first draft of the script, when the game was still supposed to be single player, Sheva still existed, but was just an NPC BSAA agent. We don't know when Capcom shook things up and made her playable character as a co-op partner (because even in the final game she is still just "a partner"; she doesn't contribute much to the story beside the partnership theme). But regarding the colorism, she still was has the lightest dark skinned person in the whole game (at least compared to other BSAA agents from the Africa unit).

And it is sad that in a series that soon will celebrate its 25th anniversary and have about 20 entries (counting only those with original stories), there are only 4 black playable people (Sheva from RE5, Mark and Jim from Outbreak, Tyrone from Resistance), three of whom are from multiplayer games.

Edit: forgot about Keith from Revelations, although I forgot whether it was him or Quint who was the playable character in the story. So that would make it 5 playable black characters.

 

[Urban Scholar]

That's a irrational assumption in my book. It makes sense to choose a native person as playable character. RE6 did the same thing with east european characters. I liked sheeva very much and thought she was a very good and believable character (in RE terms).

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She's literally the only Black Resident Evil character that isn't a side or background person. In their first and only game set in Africa.

Is it good? No. Because she falls very easily into tokenism.

Is she not problematic in terms of her speech and execution? No. But it is a problem that a game series with overwhelming white protagonists has their first and only Black protagonist whom is also a co star, set in the continent of Africa.

Like mentioned above the Black people you can play with in a 25 year old series? You can count on 1 hand.

 

[Deleted member 15240]

While I was looking up various rpgs to play on my Switch I found out that the extended edition of Baldur's Gate 2 added a romanceable black companion named Hexxat. Reading up on it, it dawned on me that I couldn't think of a single other black romanceable female character in wrpgs or games in general. I haven't gotten around to playing it yet so I can't speak to how she was portrayed in-game but her design looks good.

The lack of black female characters in gaming and the issues with representation that often plague the few that do exist is one of the biggest reminders that games are overwhelmingly not made by us or really for us. It's fucking exhausting and I hope we'll see more black writers, directors, artists, etc., especially black women.

 

[Powdered Egg]

I mean have we actually really progressed? For all the praise ND gets I still see black people always falling into these tropes if they ain't outright murdered as brutally as possible and this after a long ass murder haul of brown and indigenous people.



Man I just saw your AVI.....I hate you LOL

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Lmao are you fucking kidding me with those vids? Smh Deus Ex dropped less than a decade ago and they pulled that huh lol.

 

[SevenOfRhyme]

Thank you so much for this thread. Absolutely amazing read.

Thinking about it, the only character from 2020 with dark skin I can think of that doesn't fit this trend is Stella from Spiritfarer. Just a girl helping people get ready for the afterlife and giving real good hugs.

 

[Ego]

She's literally the only Black Resident Evil character that isn't a side or background person. In their first and only game set in Africa.

Is it good? No. Because she falls very easily into tokenism.

Is she not problematic in terms of her speech and execution? No. But it is a problem that a game series with overwhelming white protagonists has their first and only Black protagonist whom is also a co star, set in the continent of Africa.

Like mentioned above the Black people you can play with in a 25 year old series? You can count on 1 hand.

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I was referring to an irrational assumption, which can be easily explained in more sensible terms. A native character was chosen, because it makes sense in a different territory (Afrika, East Europe).
You missed my point.

 

[Chucat]

I'm glad there's a thread to discuss stuff like this, it felt weird to post about it in a Kingdom Hearts thread when it's a much more wide-ranging issue than that.


Most of what I was going to say about most of the games I've played has already been said. But I'm probably going to talk more about racism/representation because the entire thing is so interconnected to me at this point. There's things in general just bug me, note, I'm coming at this from more of a Black/African mindset:

1) The sheer lack of playable black characters in most of the games I've played. Any time there IS one, they tend to be limited to: Hyper masculine/Sports/Dancing (you MUST pick AT LEAST one). In pretty much all of the games I've played (fighting games, JRPGs and platformers), the best option I've been offered for a character I could play as was Storm, from the X-Men, which is a pretty damning indictment of videogames if this is the best representation in any game I've played.

2) I don't really know how to describe this properly, but even when you try to go "Oh this person could be black" because they're not lily-white like almost everyone else in the game, people come out of the woodwork to go "No, they're just tanned!" like the thought of having a single PoC in the game is completely unacceptable. (The fact that Atelier pic earlier has the ARTIST doing it is just horrendous) But then you have white people claiming characters in anime and things set in Japan, which is somehow even more outrageous but goes by without incident.

Also for actual games I've played that haven't been mentioned here and their representation. Sadly they're 4X/TBS games which means the representation is more abstract, but still, there's something there.

Civilization

You can play as leaders like Shaka, Hatshepsut, Rameses, Mansa Musa and Zara Yaqob. The structure of the game means you can't actually see your leader for most of it, but it's nice, you can peek at the in game encyclopedia and get a simple history of them, which is actually really good since I had no real way of knowing these people existed prior to this game (but this is more of a thing about schooling and eurocentric history etc etc). I think Civ IV is the only one that actually lets you play as a black lady though (Hatshepsut), all the rest are dudes.

Total War (historical)

Speaking of Eurocentric... For the games that aren't set in Japan/China/Britain/Greece. Rome Total War is based on the time period around the Punic Wars and Medieval is based on 1080-1400 CE. Here is a map of the factions in Medieval 2

Your pickings for African factions are "The Moors" and "Egypt". The entire rest of Africa is a bunch of sparse rebel provinces.

Rome 2 and Attila finally added factions that weren't Ptolemaic Egypt/Carthage/Numidia, such as Aksum (Ethiopia) and Kush, which actually let you have a ruler who was a black lady. Naturally this made people flip their lids because I guess black people and/or women are ahistorical or something and this was the last straw. Oh and these factions are DLC only and feel pretty half-baked because why not.

Total War (Warhammer)

Unless there's something I've missed, there is not a single way to play as a black person or have a black faction leader in this game. You can play as someone CODED black, which I'll get into, but yeah.

Basically the universe of this game is based on Warhammer Fantasy Battle, which is a pastiche of real world medieval factions fed through a fantasy filter. So Germany is a collection of loosely-allied kingdoms who fight using pike and shot and artillery, France is a bunch of knights who live in castles and downtrodden peasants. Romania is full of vampires. All of these are pretty weird and neat so far, they must have come up with really cool stuff for places outside of Europe with some nice representation.

The Aztecs/Incans are into astronomy, astrology, large pyramids, human sacrifices and gold. They're also all sentient bipedal turquoise lizards.
The Egyptians have giant constructs based on cats/sphinxes/scorpions, they also like pyramids, gold and obelisks and so on. They're also all undead mummy skeletons.
Sub Saharan Africa (or deep in South America) had this (extremely offensive), unsurprisingly, given how bad they are, they stopped selling them in the 90's and the faction just doesn't exist now.

So yeah, it's not good either. If you wanna play as a black person you're pretty much locked into playing as an undead mummy (which is cool, but...they're an undead mummy). Every single human(oid) leader in the game is white, green or some sort of vampire.

If someone here has played any of the Paradox stuff, how do they handle it? Can you legitimately play as an African faction, or is it just a half-baked afterthought?


Also since someone mentioned LoL/DotA

LoL had Karma and Nidalee back when I played, I'd HOPE there's more now?

DotA2 has Chen and Legion Commander

The sole pro is that they pretty much did the opposite of whitewashing here, in the original game Chen was an Orc and Legion Commander was a white dude.

 

[Urban Scholar]

I was referring to an irrational assumption, which can be easily explained in more sensible terms. A native character was chosen, because it makes sense in a different territory (Afrika, East Europe).
You missed my point.

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Sure I did.

So answer me this. Did you read what I wrote that was in line with what you retorting? The only playable Black woman in the series is in a game set in Africa?

 

[Weltall Zero]

Hyrule Warriors has this issue with the characters Lana and Cia. They were originally one person but she was split into her good and evil halves. Can you tell which one is which?

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This was going to be my contribution to the thread, yeah. Literally every single damaging "black woman" stereotype rolled into one.

Yeah, its pretty sad to see. Genshin Impact has a variety of problems when it comes to female character designs but the lack of brown and black female characters was really noticeable to me when I was playing it. I know there's a brown girl now but I dropped the game before she was added so I don't know if this is an accurate take on her personality but she seems like the 'rough / tough girl' with an angry look and it's like...can ya'll please try to do something different.

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I was pretty disappointed in Genshin Impact because of how pretty much my entire party at some point was blonde young women. It turns out I just had my rolls line up like that, but yeah, the majority of the current cast is still white women.

With regards to the character you mention above, she's a rocker girl (with an electric guitar and everything) from the game's equivalent of China. The current regions in the game are based on Germanic Europe and China; two of the upcoming regions, Sumeru and Natlan, are based respectively on India and pre-Columbian America, so these will probably be the real test of how they treat dark-skinned people. Unfortunately, the next region to be implemented is Inazuma, the Japan equivalent, so that'll take a while.

 

[entrydenied]

I hadn't so thank you for posting about it! I added it to my Steam wishlist. I would like to use this thread to highlight positive representation too; Season is a game that stood out to me when it was announced because of its art style and choice of protagonist. I like that we are going to get to see a black girl experiencing nature, enjoying her life, etc. It feels wholesome.

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Wow this looks great. Haven't seen this before so thanks for posting.

Great OP celes

 

[Ego]

Sure I did.

So answer me this. Did you read what I wrote that was in line with what you retorting? The only playable Black woman in the series is in a game set in Africa?

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So you do indeed believe that Sheeva was only 'created' to have an 'exuse' to kill african zombies within afrika? That means that Piers Nivans was solely 'created' to have an 'excuse' to kill east european zombies in europe. Are you guys serious?

This sounds like a malicious conspiracy theorie to me. I think the reasons I stated are much more sensibel and down to earth. Native playable characters offer more context to the story and gameworld.

 

[Angst]

I've kinda always thought the reason their are so many aggressive black women in media is due to someone trying to get "strong female character" and "black representation" all in one go.

 

[SykoTech]

I was extremely disappointed at the FFXVI trailer, too.

Nothing of color was found :/

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Yeah. Looks like they're going for a Game of Thrones/Witcher kinda vibe to me. So if there are any black characters at all, it probably won't be great.

At least there's Project Athia. Looking forward to that game more honestly.

That's a irrational assumption in my book. It makes sense to choose a native person as playable character. RE6 did the same thing with east european characters. I liked sheeva very much and thought she was a very good and believable character (in RE terms).

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I wasn't trying to suggest that having a black person playable didn't technically make sense or that Sheva was a bad character. I like her too, and wish she'd appear in a mainline game again.

It's just the uproar was all over the internet back when the game was revealed. Even non-gaming sites were covering it. I can't shake the feeling that the pressure is the reason Capcom made her playable regardless of how much sense it made. I have no proof though, so it's a moot point.

In the first draft of the script, when the game was still supposed to be single player, Sheva still existed, but was just an NPC BSAA agent. We don't know when Capcom shook things up and made her playable character as a co-op partner (because even in the final game she is still just "a partner"; she doesn't contribute much to the story beside the partnership theme). But regarding the colorism, she still was has the lightest dark skinned person in the whole game (at least compared to other BSAA agents from the Africa unit).

And it is sad that in a series that soon will celebrate its 25th anniversary and have about 20 entries (counting only those with original stories), there are only 4 black playable people (Sheva from RE5, Mark and Jim from Outbreak, Tyrone from Resistance), three of whom are from multiplayer games.

Edit: forgot about Keith from Revelations, although I forgot whether it was him or Quint who was the playable character in the story. So that would make it 5 playable black characters.

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Ah, thanks for that. I wasn't aware. Well I suppose that's better than her just being created out of thin air just to quell the anger. But as you stated, her overall lack of involvement purpose still has me curious as to whether or not the shift from single player to co-op w/ Sheva was a change that came organically or just came in response to the backlash. Also, good point about her coincidentally being the lightest black character in the game. How...convenient.

I left out the multiplayer black characters on purpose. I guess they're better than nothing, but it kinda feels like a copout to only include black characters when there is little in terms of story and there are other non-black characters to default to. As for Revelations, I'll be honest, I totally forgot about that one. Haha. I guess that's sliver of credit I have to give them.

 

[Igniz12]

Lmao are you fucking kidding me with those vids? Smh Deus Ex dropped less than a decade ago and they pulled that huh lol.

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I was amazed that this did not bring up more of a stink at that time, only later on did this particular moment get brought up and the woman who did the VA for it said they never told her what the context of her lines were. Not that it mattered anyway, context or not idk how this managed to get a pass.

But of course they latter went on to do the "Aug lives matter" shit and it kinda said it all then, probably a combination of no diversity in the dev team and a glaring lack of common sense.

 

[Deleted member 17184]

I meant to ask: for those who played Dishonored Death of the Outsider, how did you feel about Billie? I haven't played, so I'm curious.

 

[Malverde]

Josh was also playable in the RE5 story DLC alongside Jill.




The thing that bugs me the most about Resident Evil 5 is how they completely cut Sheva out of the cover on the rerelease. What the fuck is this shit? The one black protagonist you all have and you seriously remove her from the cover?

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[SykoTech]

So you do indeed believe that Sheeva was only 'created' to have an 'exuse' to kill african zombies within afrika? That means that Piers Nivans was solely 'created' to have an 'excuse' to kill east european zombies in europe. Are you guys serious?

This sounds like a malicious conspiracy theorie to me. I think the reasons I stated are much more sensibel and down to earth. Native playable characters offer more context to the story and gameworld.

Click to shrink...

That's false equivalence though.

If RE6's initial reveal was the premise of a black man killing waves of white zombies in Europe, and such a reveal caused a huge uproar across the internet, then you'd have a point. But such a thing never happened for RE6. I doubt Capcom wouldn't even dream about making such a game. Only RE5 had a reveal like that. Therefore you cannot equate Sheva and Piers, as the situations involving the games they were in were entirely different.

Ask yourself, do you think the general public is going to get mad over a white American (Chris) shooting white European zombies as they did said white American shooting black zombies in Africa? To suggest that is false equivalence and sorta erases the colorism/racism issue that this thread is about.

 

[Urban Scholar]

So you do indeed believe that Sheeva was only 'created' to have an 'exuse' to kill african zombies within afrika? That means that Piers Nivans was solely 'created' to have an 'excuse' to kill east european zombies in europe. Are you guys serious?

This sounds like a malicious conspiracy theorie to me. I think the reasons I stated are much more sensibel and down to earth. Native playable characters offer more context to the story and gameworld.

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You clearly aren't reading what I'm saying.

I honestly ask myself why I waste my time talking to yall about Black issues. Thanks for the reminder. I'll proceed to ignore you

 

[Deleted member 511]

Soliloquy of a Dogge I forgot to reply yesterday but wanted to say that I agree with you entirely. I don't think your post felt like you were rambling at all.

Anyway, Isn't there some type of puzzle game or something that game out this year where the main character was a South Asian (I believe specifically Indian) woman? Does anyone know what I'm referring too?

The comments on this Atelier character really rubbed me the wrong way. There's a weird trope for going a "tanned skin" route than to commit a character simply being, in-fact, dark-skinned.

While I can appreciate the visual contrast, the tendency for dark characters to sport light hair colours is also reaaaallly prevalent (you can literally make a list of it).

Anyways, great topic. It's a topic that deserves eyes.

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There's a lot wrong with the comments of that image but the 'not a foreigner' is the worst. I too liked the white hair due to the visual contrasting but I realized overtime that it really just further mystifies brown and black people even further and it's also just...kind of super limiting / almost lazy at this point? There's a lot of other colors you could use such as pink, purple, blue, etc. for a fun visual contrast. I think there was even art trend on twitter where black artists designed black characters with just pink hair and all of them looked great.

So you do indeed believe that Sheeva was only 'created' to have an 'exuse' to kill african zombies within afrika? That means that Piers Nivans was solely 'created' to have an 'excuse' to kill east european zombies in europe. Are you guys serious?

This sounds like a malicious conspiracy theorie to me. I think the reasons I stated are much more sensibel and down to earth. Native playable characters offer more context to the story and gameworld.

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They could've introduced a playable black woman before and after RE5 but they didn't. As mentioned before: they already sexualized her in a racist alt costume and she hasn't appeared since. Not in a CG movie or a side game like others have. Nothing. Also what we're not going to do in this thread is to tell other people of color that their opinions are 'conspiracies' when none of these companies have earned their trust. RE is made by the same company that allowed another one of their franchises to have a white woman dress up as a brown woman and basically wear brown face. Twice. So no, no one has to give Capcom / Resident Evil the benefit of the doubt.

I've kinda always thought the reason their are so many aggressive black women in media is due to someone trying to get "strong female character" and "black representation" all in one go.

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I don't really buy that simply because there are so many 'strong female character' types that aren't aggressive or if they are, it's not they're entire personality. Lightning from FFXIII could definitely be labeled as a 'strong female character' who is angry and aggressive yet the game explains why she's that way and it's an active part of her development to learn how to be vulnerable around others again and trusting people. Black (and or brown) women don't get that. We honestly see that in the same game with Fang, who has a brown skin tone, and her emotions, thoughts, and feelings are never given anywhere near the same depth or exploration as the female characters with lighter skin tones, ex. Serah, Lightning, and Vanille. She's kind of one tracked minded most of the time and is kind of the 'tough' one in the group.

 

[Ego]

That's false equivalence though.

If RE6's initial reveal was the premise of a black man killing waves of white zombies in Europe, and such a reveal caused a huge uproar across the internet, then you'd have a point. But such a thing never happened for RE6. I doubt Capcom wouldn't even dream about making such a game. Only RE5 had a reveal like that. Therefore you cannot equate Sheva and Piers, as the situations involving the games they were in were entirely different.

Ask yourself, do you think the general public is going to get mad over a white American (Chris) shooting white European zombies as they did said white American shooting black zombies in Africa? To suggest that is false equivalence and sorta erases the colorism/racism issue that this thread is about.

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You have a valid point here. I wasn't familiar with the 'huge uproar across the internet.' But I just looked into it...a very interesting read. The initial trailer was the cause of it and Sheeva wasn't introduced back then.

Capcom at least keeps tradition alive by introducing native characters for whatever reason.

 

[Serif]

Anyway, Isn't there some type of puzzle game or something that game out this year where the main character was a South Asian (I believe specifically Indian) woman? Does anyone know what I'm referring too?

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Might you be referring to Raji: An Ancient Epic? It's an action-adventure but it's the only prominent game I remember from this year with an Indian female protagonist.

I'm Desi and colorism is unfortunately too prominent in South Asian culture, so I appreciate this kind of representation in a video game (especially considering the absence of playable Desi characters in general)

 

[Powdered Egg]

I was amazed that this did not bring up more of a stink at that time, only later on did this particular moment get brought up and the woman who did the VA for it said they never told her what the context of her lines were. Not that it mattered anyway, context or not idk how this managed to get a pass.

But of course they latter went on to do the "Aug lives matter" shit and it kinda said it all then, probably a combination of no diversity in the dev team and a glaring lack of common sense.

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LOL What a mess.

 

[Chumunga64]

Kingdom Hearts making you darker as you become evil is fucking hilarious

 

[SykoTech]

You have a valid point here. I wasn't familiar with the 'huge uproar across the internet.' But I just looked into it...a very interesting read. The initial trailer was the cause of it and Sheeva wasn't introduced back then.

Capcom at least keeps tradition alive by introducing native characters for whatever reason.

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I understand. I was in high school at the time and even my friends who never really talked about race issues in video games were abuzz with the RE5 backlash. That's probably why it sticks with me to this day.

I do not mean to downplay Capcom's inclusion of native characters like Sheva and Piers at all. It was nice to see them both. It's just that in the context of what was going on at the time when RE5 was being promoted that make me skeptical.

Josh was also playable in the RE5 story DLC alongside Jill.




The thing that bugs me the most about Resident Evil 5 is how they completely cut Sheva out of the cover on the rerelease. What the fuck is this shit? The one black protagonist you all have and you seriously remove her from the cover?

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Huh. That's pretty cool. Admittedly I've never play the DLC for RE5. The base game was a bit of a turn off for me (for racial reasons and general game design stuff as well).

But I do remember seeing the cover/promo art and thinking "of course that would immediately swap out Sheva the second they get the chance". A pity.

 

[Deleted member 511]

Might you be referring to Raji: An Ancient Epic? It's an action-adventure but it's the only prominent game I remember from this year with an Indian female protagonist.

I'm Desi and colorism is unfortunately too prominent in South Asian culture, so I appreciate this kind of representation in a video game (especially considering the absence of playable Desi characters in general)

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Yes, that's the one! Thank you. I don't know why I thought it was a puzzle game lol.

 

[Injustice45]

The stuff regarding Vanessa in Virtua Fighter still frustrates me. Not only did she get her skin lightened up in 5, she also lost her muscle, too. On top of that, her facial features were altered as well. They tried to remedy that by having Vanessa's original skin tone as an unlockable custom part for her, but that's such a half-assed solution.

This was a part of a customization pack for Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown. It gives her back her original skin tone and muscle, neither of which she should have lost, especially the former.

On a more positive note, ARMS has better representation, though it isn't a lot, with Twintelle and Misango. They have some great designs, just like the rest of the game's cast.

 

[Deleted member 22630]

Great topic Celes, I've been noticing it too.

 

[Kyuuji]

Brilliant thread celes, thank you for taking the time. There have been a number of examples here I wasn't aware of prior, especially within Final Fantasy as I've only ever had a loose connection with the series at best, since playing a few as a kid. Sorry that you, and Black women in general, have to put up with so much to fight for so little. There's such untapped potential for games if we could just break out of this cishet white box that's set up, yet any deviation from it is met with constant nit-picking alongside an expectation that people should be on their knees kissing the feet of those that would give crumbs. Will be more mindful to this in particular moving forward, as well as keeping an eye on the thread for further examples and opinions from those affected.

 

[Renteka-Bond]

Yes, that's the one! Thank you. I don't know why I thought it was a puzzle game lol.

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I think you might actually be thinking of Relicta:

 

[Spinosaurus]

Tetra is egregious but it was made even worse for me when I saw the king and he had the same skin tone as Tetra.

Even in BOTW his skin tone was more brown. I guess every Zelda (and Link) just have to be as pale as possible to have that title.

 

[Deleted member 33533]

Tetra is egregious but it was made even worse for me when I saw the king and he had the same skin tone as Tetra.

Even in BOTW his skin tone was more brown. I guess every Zelda (and Link) just have to be as pale as possible to have that title.

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I always wondered why the King in BotW has dark skin when he's the "Old Man." It doesn't really seem to have any logic behind it. I guess they were trying to further make his identity ambiguous like with Sheik in Ocarina?

It has the unfortunate effect of him going from this dark skinned, somewhat vagabond-ish persona who lives in the wilderness to light-skinned royalty.

 

[Paroni]

If someone here has played any of the Paradox stuff, how do they handle it? Can you legitimately play as an African faction, or is it just a half-baked afterthought?

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In Crusader Kings 2 and 3, you can. Ethiopians need to deal with Fatimids of Egypt as early as possible, but if they manage form Abyssinia it will become a powerhouse. I've also seen even AI succeeding in reforming West African paganism and expanding to North Africa from unified Mali in CK2. I haven't played CK3 much yet, but it seems to function similarly.

In Europa Universalis 4 it depends on geography. In East Africa it's actually surprisingly easy since as a human player you can just go on to conquest spree and take over most of east coast of Africa before Europeans even discover it, and AI controlled Mamluk Egypt always tends to be too busy getting crushed by Ottomans to bother anyone South of them. Also, North African nations like Morocco and Tunis are very plausible, they got unique coastal raiding mechanic that grants them extra money and they usually have easy time securing eternal alliance with the Ottomans. As for West Africa, I think it can be doable but very difficult, since you really need to prepare and grab all the land and resources you can get in your region before Europeans start coming.

Victoria 2 is worst by this regard. Most of Africa is "empty" for colonization and only South American nations, Persia, Japan and Ottoman Empire are really plausible non-white countries to play as.

 

[Deleted member 511]

Maybe we should have a thread just for good examples of black characters.
And pointing out not so good ones as well.

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I've been thinking about making a post in here that I'll threadmark and continuously update with a list of games that have positive representation for brown and black people. Some people have already listed some games that others (including myself) didn't know about it so I think it would be useful.

Brilliant thread celes, thank you for taking the time. There have been a number of examples here I wasn't aware of prior, especially within Final Fantasy as I've only ever had a loose connection with the series at best, since playing a few as a kid. Sorry that you, and Black women in general, have to put up with so much to fight for so little. There's such untapped potential for games if we could just break out of this cishet white box that's set up, yet any deviation from it is met with constant nit-picking alongside an expectation that people should be on their knees kissing the feet of those that would give crumbs. Will be more mindful to this in particular moving forward, as well as keeping an eye on the thread for further examples and opinions from those affected.

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Perfectly said. I'm over companies doing the bare minimum and because the bar is so low, we're supposed to accept their scraps. We all deserve so much better.

I think you might actually be thinking of Relicta:

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It was definitely Raji because of the main character's design; don't know why I thought it was a puzzle game. This is my first time seeing Relicta actually.

 

[Urban Scholar]

I've been thinking about making a post in here that I'll threadmark and continuously update with a list of games that have positive representation for brown and black people. Some people have already listed some games that others (including myself) didn't know about it so I think it would be useful.

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I'd like to contribute to that it would be cool. I suddenly remember also play Children of Zoidarcs. A mix of a RPG and TTRPG that stars a young dark skinned Black woman that fights her oppressors. I remember the game's story treating her very well. But that's to be expected when you have a creative team that isn't majority white.

 

[Mesoian]

The comments on this Atelier character really rubbed me the wrong way. There's a weird trope for going a "tanned skin" route than to commit a character simply being, in-fact, dark-skinned.

While I can appreciate the visual contrast, the tendency for dark characters to sport light hair colours is also reaaaallly prevalent (you can literally make a list of it).

Anyways, great topic. It's a topic that deserves eyes.

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I see this a LOT in japanese media. "She's not black, she's tanned! So it's fine, better even!"

I'd like to contribute to that it would be cool. I suddenly remember also play Children of Zoidarcs. A mix of a RPG and TTRPG that stars a young dark skinned Black woman that fights her oppressors. I remember the game's story treating her very well. But that's to be expected when you have a creative team that isn't majority white.

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THIS CAME OUT?!? I was wondering what happened to this, I played it at e3 YEARS ago.
Man, I gotta pick this up.

 

[Axumar]

What a great post. I think this is a very common subconscious bias that a lot of people have and they probably find it really hard to avoid.

I think Ganondorf from OoT is a prime example of this. Evil dark man from a desert tribe of Amazon women thieves come to invade the European inspired kingdom of Hyrule, it's clearly based in racist imagery and ideas.

In this case, and many of these cases, I don't think it's done intentionally maliciously. Probably it's people just not really being aware. I want to say things are better these days though we still get new examples like the Hyrule Warriors Lana/Cia one recently which was really bad. I hope these creators get the memo eventually.

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This example is spot on. I remember a friend of mine pointing this out to me when I was younger and it gets worse when you inspect it. The Gerudo also fit the aggressive model the OP describes.

 

[Deleted member 16908]

The comments on this Atelier character really rubbed me the wrong way. There's a weird trope for going a "tanned skin" route than to commit a character simply being, in-fact, dark-skinned.

While I can appreciate the visual contrast, the tendency for dark characters to sport light hair colours is also reaaaallly prevalent (you can literally make a list of it).

Anyways, great topic. It's a topic that deserves eyes.

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What kind of trash art book is this picture from?

 

[Deleted member 22630]

What kind of trash art book is this picture from?

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It's such a weird ass comment.

 

[Renteka-Bond]

Another game with an atypical black female protagonist. It released early May, which was a bit of a tumultuous time and it's a pretty lowkey game, so it was easy to miss, but it's a fairly straightforward SRPG/VN style game. Not too long either, but it addresses a few of the concerns in this thread straight on.

 

[Coen]

Great thread

Because it involves issues that harm Black people. Like most issues that happen to marginalized the majority doesn't register it and glosses over it.

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I'll admit this is/was exactly the case for me.

Ofcourse I've been aware of the obviously awful dark=evil stereotyping that's been going on for as long as I can remember in all kinds of media. It's baffling to me that this harmful trope is used to this day.

But the Nadine example in the OP is really enlightening. I have never noticed it's problematic, but that's because I've internalised exactly that type of strong, brawly dark skinned lady as the norm. That's all on me though; it makes absolutely no sense and it's due to the fact that I know very few dark skinned women in real life.

 

[Urban Scholar]

THIS CAME OUT?!? I was wondering what happened to this, I played it at e3 YEARS ago.
Man, I gotta pick this up

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Yeah and the story goes places I didn't see coming. And gameplay is solid

 

[Chucat]

Paradox stuff.

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That's awesome, I'll have to give them a try (especially CK2 since I already own it).

What a great post. I think this is a very common subconscious bias that a lot of people have and they probably find it really hard to avoid.



This example is spot on. I remember a friend of mine pointing this out to me when I was younger and it gets worse when you inspect it. The Gerudo also fit the aggressive model the OP describes.

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It's completely absurd. They're a dark skinned race, that lives in the desert, that has a society completely built around a harem, their symbol was literally a star and crescent, they go around thieving, raiding and kidnapping. It's pretty much an expy for Arabic raiders or something like that, which then makes the fact he turns into (or was originally) a giant pig demon even worse.

Also racking my brain I can't even think of another dark skinned person in the entire game, which is cool.

 

[Khanimus]

Quality thread OP

This shit is so prevalent and ingrained in design biases across mediums. Artists and peers that continue to propagate and justify this shit, I just fucking can't.

 

[apocat]

Not much to add. Just wanted to say that this was a great read.

 

[Malverde]

Another game with an atypical black female protagonist. It released early May, which was a bit of a tumultuous time and it's a pretty lowkey game, so it was easy to miss, but it's a fairly straightforward SRPG/VN style game. Not too long either, but it addresses a few of the concerns in this thread straight on.

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Wintermoor Tactics Club is awesome, one of my favorite games from last year. It takes place at a private school so most of the characters are white but they do a pretty great job at addressing that shit directly.

The other game I would give a shout out to is Ikenfell.

Ikenfell

Ikenfell is a turn-based tactical RPG about a group of troublesome magic students. Uncover the dark secrets that plague their school.

www.humblegames.com

Two black, nonbinary protagonists (Ima and Rook). Ima uses ze/zir pronouns too which I'm not sure is something I have personally seen in any other games. Also my head cannon is that Gilda is latinx although that isn't mentioned anywhere. It is an unabashedly queer game with an awesome story. Rook and Ima in particular have some of the best themes in the game.

 

[Brinbe]

goddamn, as a filipino, knowing the severe problems of colorism in my culture, reading that op hurts my soul.

 

[jetpacks was yes]

Great thread, OP. And to everyone else coming in to defend their favorite companies... ffs, just listen for once in your life. Show some humility maybe.

I was really looking forward to Campo Santo's In the Valley of Gods since it looked like it might have had an interesting black female lead, but then they were bought out by Valve and the game was put on hold so fuck everything. Still bitter about that...

I always think of the fact that we as Black folks have to not only be a part of the process. But we need to also be the leaders involved with media. Otherwise we will not be authentically represented.

*Waits for a triple A game starring a solo dark skinned Black women and done right*

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Yeah I think this is really important. Representation of creative voices means everything, especially at the top.

 

[SlickVic]

Another thing is that the Ananta's primal, Lakshmi, is clearly based off of the Hindu deity, yet she is also super pale and has straight hair. The Ananta, the beast tribe that worship her, are not pale, and their hair is more like braided or locked. However, she's their ideal of beauty. :/

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Yeah, I think the other thing that makes this one weird to me is the fact that Colorism has been an ongoing problem in Indian culture for a long time, with the idealization of fair skin and selling of beauty products like 'Fair and Lovely'. I'm not saying it's intentional in FFXIV (I'm honestly not sure how much Square Enix is aware of this issue), but I think it still carries the same unfortunate consequence of perpetuating Indian colorism, in this case by making the Hindu god they choose to represent in the game as being a white woman essentially.

I feel Indian culture is so underrepresented in games, and while it's cool to see some representation with Lakshmi in a Final Fantasy game, it would have been nice if her appearance was more consistent with an Indian woman in the game.